The present invention relates to a system and method for delivering customized content to users based upon their preferences and, more particularly, to a system and method for periodically evaluating content with respect to individual user preferences and sending packs of suitable content items directly to a user client operated by an individual user.
The Internet is rapidly becoming a primary information resource of the modern World. Internet use worldwide is constantly increasing, and people increasingly perceive the Internet as the largest and most available information resource. However, many Internet users have difficulty retrieving the content they seek in a timely fashion. This difficulty arises from a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the vast size and complexity of the Internet, the dynamic nature of the Internet, and lack of experience in using available search and retrieval methods.
Available search and retrieval methods typically include portals, search engines, and bookmarks (alternately referred to as favorites or hot links). Portals are Internet sites with links to other Internet sites. As an example, an Internet site of the National Football League (NFL) might contain links to Internet sites of NFL teams, NFL players, and purveyors of products carrying an NFL trademark. In this way, the NFL Internet site would serve as a portal for football content. However, a football fan interested in, for example, a single NFL team, two college football teams, and all the activities of high school football teams in his hometown does not have all of his content needs supplied by the NFL Internet portal.
This user might use a search engine to retrieve a list of Internet sites dealing with football. Depending upon their level of expertise, users of search engines may or may not succeed in finding the information they desire. Typically inexperienced users of a search engine either retrieve large amounts of irrelevant content, or exclude a significant portion of the desired content, depending upon the way in which they carry out their search.
Assuming that the hypothetical Internet user finds the Internet sites which provide content pertaining to the chosen single NFL team, the desired two college football teams, and all the activities of high school football teams in his home town, the user would typically place these Internet addresses in a bookmark list. The bookmark list allows the user to quickly return to the selected sites, but it does not allow simultaneous retrieval of desired content from all of the sites, and some of the sites may present a significant quantity of unwanted content, for example advertising. Visiting multiple Internet sites and retrieving unwanted content from these sites requires more time than using a single information resource which would contain only content suited to a particular user information profile.
Assuming that the user in the above example succeeds in locating all of the desired information and organizing the appropriate sites in a bookmark list, visiting all of the sites periodically is still necessary to keep aware of changes, additions or updates. For this reason, many sites offer e-mail subscription lists which makes users aware of changes and additions to site content by e-mail announcement. However, these announcements do not deliver the new content, the user must visit the site in order to retrieve it. Sometimes the new content is not delivered in order to keep the e-mail messages small, in other cases the content provider uses the e-mail messages to increase traffic at their Web site.
There is thus a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, a system and method for delivering desired content directly to individual users based upon their preferences.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for delivering content desired by a specific user among a plurality of users directly to a user client of the specific user via the Internet. The system comprises at least one server including a memory. The at least one server is designed and configured for (a) receiving a user profile from the specific user, the user profile defining user preferences with respect to a plurality of criteria; (b) storing a plurality of content items in the memory, each of the items having a content profile with respect to the plurality of criteria; (c) assembling a packet of content items, each of the items in the packet being characterized by a correspondence between the user profile and the content profile; and (d) sending the packet to the user client of the specific user.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for receiving content desired by a specific user among a plurality of users via the Internet. The system comprises at least one user client including a memory. The at least one user client is designed and configured for (a) transmitting a user profile from the specific user to a server, the user profile defining user preferences with respect to a plurality of criteria; (b) receiving a packet of content items in the memory, each of the items having a content profile with respect to the plurality of criteria, and notifying the specific user of receipt of the packet; (c) storing the packet of content items in a memory device of the user client; and (d) making available to the specific user the content items in the packet.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for delivering content desired by a specific user among a plurality of users directly to a user client of the specific user via the Internet. The method comprises the steps of (a) receiving a user profile from the specific user, the user profile defining user preferences with respect to a plurality of criteria; (b) storing a plurality of content items, each of the items having a content profile with respect to the plurality of criteria; (c) assembling a packet of content items, wherein each of the items in the packet is characterized by a correspondence between the user profile and the content profile; and (d) sending the packet to the user client of the specific user.
According to still another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for delivering content desired by a specific user among a plurality of users directly to the user by means of a user client of the specific user which is in communication with the Internet. The method comprises the steps of: (a) transmitting a user profile from the specific user to a server, the user profile defining user preferences with respect to a plurality of criteria; (b) receiving a packet of content items, each of the items having a content profile with respect to the plurality of criteria and notifying the specific user of the receipt; (c) storing the packet of content items in a memory device of the user client; and (d) making available to the specific user the content items in the packet.
According to further features in preferred embodiments of the invention described below, each of the items in the packet is selected from the group consisting of a digital file, a compressed digital file, and a digital file buffered to the size of a communication protocol pack length.
According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments, each of the content items in the packet contains at least one item selected from the group consisting of a picture, text, audio information, an animated picture, a video image and video animation and any other media which can be displayed or acted upon.
According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments, the plurality of criteria include at least one criterion selected from the group consisting of a country of origin, a language, a date, a topic, a keyword and a key phrase.
According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments, the user profile and the content profile each independently contain values for each of the at least one criterion, the values are selected from the group consisting of a predefined list of values, a specific numerical value, a range of numerical values, a rating assigned by an organization and a user mark.
According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments, the user mark is a value between xe2x88x921 and +1.
According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments, the correspondence between the user profile and the content profile is selected from the group consisting of a Boolean correspondence and a statistical correspondence.
According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments, sending the packet occurs when bandwidth is available on a channel of communication between the user client and the server, such that connectivity of the user client is affected as little as possible by sending of the packet by the server.
According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments, the server is further designed and configured to receive communications from the user client informing the server of user reactions to the items in the packet and to update the user preferences in the user profile in accordance with the reactions.
According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments, the server is further designed and configured to receive communications from the user client informing the server of an internet surfing activity of the user and to update the user preferences in the user profile in accordance with the internet surfing activity.
According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments, the user profile identifies the user only by means of an item selected from the group consisting of the user client used by the user and a random number.
According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments, the content items stored in the memory contain the content desired by the specific user, the content being downloadable to the user client so as to be available to the user without a network connection.
According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments, the user client is further designed and configured to communicate with the server for informing the server of user reactions to the items in the packet.
According to still further features in the described preferred embodiments, the user client is further designed and configured to communicate with the server for informing the server of an internet surfing activity of the user.
The present invention successfully addresses the shortcomings of the presently known configurations by providing a system and method for automatically delivering customized content to users based upon their changing preferences on an ongoing basis.